Army Ten Miler

Several months back, my friend Mary asked me if I would run with her. Several months back, I was in a crazy mood and said yes. This morning we let the house at 5:45 and made our way to the Pentagon with the other 35,000 people. The metro was PACKED and the lines for the pottys were nuts! But we made it just in time for our wave and we were off. The first two miles kinda sucked. Frozen muscles and joints took a while to warm up. Getting to Mile 3 was when we crossed over the Memorial Bridge. I wish I could have taken a picture of the sea of people running in front of us. The way the hills worked you could only see bodies flowing over the bridge. It was probably my favorite part of the race (pretty cool to be part of something so big.) Miles 4, 5 and 6 were pretty uneventful, water stops and marching bands. Then Mile 7 was over by the Smithsonian Castle. The amount of spectators was significantly higher over there so it was much more entertaining. It is pretty cool to have perfect strangers cheering you on and shouting words of encouragement. When we got to Mile 8 though... things got dicey. Not only did we have to go uphill to get onto the 14th street bridge but the bridge was windy, boring and LONG. To top all of that off...Mile 8 was when the "Runner's cramps" started happening. Not even just cramps... this was like "HOLY HELL, I AM GOING TO SHIT MY PANTS RIGHT NOW!!" problems. Having to poop on runs is a thing that many people deal with and there really isn't anything you can do about it, but Dear Lord....it was awful!! The more I ran, the more it was a problem... but if i walked... it made getting to the bathroom that much further away. Needless to say, my mental mantra for the last 2 miles of this thing was "You're almost done, don't shit your pants, You're almost done, don't shit your pants." Luckily, I made it!  I did not shit my pants! AND I finished faster than I thought I would.

I can't say right now if I will do a 10-miler again but for right now... I am just glad I did it and its done.